Stumble
by Flippant Wisdom
Summary: Sequel to Tumble. KaiShin. What appears to be an odd, harmless mystery in the little side road town of Ayakashi, quickly becomes a disturbing journey into the mind of a serial killer and a desperate race to uncover the connection between the people disappearing and why they all have the same purple-silver flame.


Stumble  
Prologue: The Improbable Flame  
-

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE TUMBLE SERIES  
Summary: While driving along a seemingly abandoned road in the middle of no where, Shinichi discovers a mysterious boy and an impossible fire.  
Author's Note: So, is this the epilogue to Tumble? Or is it a prologue to Tumble's sequel? :D Honestly, it can serve as either! :) Truthfully, this is not the original epilogue/prologue I had planned. This is literally something I cooked up in a single day last week. All the details have not been finalized (not even close), but I have the basic plot down and almost all the main characters gathered and their respective motives for everything they do ironed out. I have no idea if this story will be as good as the original story, as this one will be written without Koorii singing in my ear, but I'm hoping that someone will like it and it won't be too terrible an attempt at a sequel. :) [Written for mirrorcomplex's second birthday. ]  
-

A steady patter of rain fell against the roof of the car, the rubbery _swoosh_ of the windshield wipers a steady back up chorus to its lullaby. It was late out. Far too late to be driving, especially in such dreary weather.

Kudo Shinichi gripped the wheel with an almost stubborn determination. He was exhausted, and his head throbbed in time with his heart, but he refused to pull over and relinquish the car. He could last a little longer, because the longer he waited the more sleep his partner would get.

In the passenger seat, Kuroba Kaito had curled up, his soft breathing barely audible over the drone of the rain. The darkness hid the ashen tone of his skin and the deep bags under his eyes - the only tell-tale signs of the ordeal he had suffered.

For all that Shinichi was certain he'd come away, hands down, with the grand prize in the injury department with his magically induced concussion, he knew Kaito was suffering the effects of having housed two souls in one body, and then the further strain of having fought and won for control. Forcing the second soul out probably hadn't helped matters either. Kaito may have said he was fine, and Shinichi believed him, but it was testimony to his fatigue that he'd dropped off almost immediately after closing his eyes.

The detective adjusted the GPS, glancing at the little car on its solitary route. The machine wasn't set to any specific destination, it's only role on this trip to help them locate food and lodgings, but Shinichi still kept it on hand just in case. There was nothing in sight for miles and he had to admit he was getting bored, which was making him even more sleepy. He had debated turning the radio on, just in case the car could pick up a station out here in the middle of nowhere. It would give him something to concentrate on other than the lull of the sound of the rain, but it could also wake Kaito, and he wasn't quite ready for that.

All of which left him right back where he had been at the beginning: bored and tired with nothing to do but stare at the road and listen to the rain.

In his half asleep state, he very nearly missed it: a tiny pin prick of light, growing slowly; steadily in the distance.

At first he dismissed it as another car. Sure, he hadn't seen any other cars since taking over for Kaito hours ago, but it was hard to believe that they were the only ones on the road, no matter what time of night it was.

As he drove closer, he was able to better determine its position: that it was on the left side of the road - his side of the road - and that it was a single light, not the twin beams of approaching headlights. It took practically being side-by-side with it before he could properly make it out.

A flame. The source of light was a single, large flame, hovering seemingly in mid air, somehow not affected by the steady drizzle of rain.

Left paranoid from the trauma of the last few days, Shinichi very nearly slammed his foot on to the gas. Memories of a sneering ghost and a smiling devil flickered in his mind's eye, and the sharp pulse of his headache reminded him he couldn't handle another encounter with the supernatural so soon. A little road like this; remote and hardly used, especially at night. It was easily believable that someone had died along it and now lingered along its winding path in search of whatever last task that held them prisoner in the living realm.

At the same time, that inner voice, the one that was always hungry; always yearning for more, not matter the danger, had reared its persistent head. Shinichi had been listening to his curiosity for far too long to stop now. There was no way of knowing, from this distance, what exactly the flame was, or if it was even anything supernatural.

Decision made, it almost seemed unnecessary that the powers that be decided to throw in that little extra something: a scream, muffled by the windows and the rain. It came from the general direction of the flame, which Shinichi could still see in the driver's side mirror. It tilted - actually tilted sideways as if it were being blown by some sort of wind - before disappearing into the trees.

Fearing now that the source of the flames - perhaps a person carrying it? - was possibly injured and in need of assistance, Shinichi slammed his foot on the brakes. The momentum of his speed and the slickness of the road carried the car a couple more meters down the road. Shinichi fought to keep control of the car, actually swinging it around into a complete one-eighty, before he managed to bring it to a complete stop on the side of the road.

Kaito woke with a jolt during the spin, eyes wide and one hand gripping his seat belt while the other held tight to the back of the seat. As the car came to a halt, the magician continued to hold perfectly still, like he was expecting there to be another event to further his traumatic awakening. It wasn't until Shinichi had opened the door and his seat buckle was snapping against the car door's wall that Kaito snapped out of it.

"Shinichi?! What's going on?" Shinichi could hear him fumbling with his own seat buckle. "Where are you going?!"

"Stay there!" Shinichi threw it over his shoulder and he darted off the road and into the grass. His shoes sank marginally into the mud, threatening to send him tumbling into the mess, but he caught his footing in time to save himself the rather embarrassing ordeal and adjusted his footing to compensate for the pull. "You might need to call the police!"

"_What_?!" From the tone of his partner's voice, it wasn't hard to figure out that Kaito was horribly confused and not even remotely happy with this newest turn of events. Shinichi made a mental note to make it up to him when he had the chance.

With only the light of his headlights and a mere approximation of where the person had fallen, it was hard to locate the exact spot the person had vanished. It didn't help he was also off because of the car skidding. He cursed himself for not grabbing a flashlight, but time was of the essence and he was already nearly to the spot he was sure the figure would be around. If he couldn't find anything, then and only then would he go back for the flashlight.

The flashlight proved to be unneeded, after all, because as Shinichi pushed aside a tangle of vines, he caught sight of the flame again.

Shinichi paused, eyes rebelling against the sight he was seeing. He was so distracted, he almost didn't feel the pain of a thorned vine mixed in with tangle he'd moved aside. It was almost an afterthought to remove his hand, and even the tangle swinging back into place did nothing to distract him from the bizarre sight in front of him.

It was, indeed, a flame Shinichi had seen. It had, likewise, been floating in mid-air, just like he'd thought. It hadn't, however, been carried like he'd previously assumed.

It was actually _inside_ the chest of the source of the scream: a young man roughly about his and Kaito's age, if his looks were anything to go by. It was hard to be sure, as he wasn't quite certain his eyesight was working correctly, what with them telling him he was seeing a _fire_ quite literally _in some one's chest_. It didn't cast any light, either, so the young man, whoever he was, was nearly swallowed by the shadows cast by the trees in the headlights' direct path.

Shinichi, overcome by morbid curiosity, moved the tangle of vines (being more careful of the thorns this time) and stepped closer to the young man. From the looks of things, he didn't appear to be affected by having the flame - if it was even _real_ - in his chest. The only thing wrong with him seemed to be the after effects of what was obviously a painful fall. Shinichi drew closer, taking in the way the young man was laying to the state of his clothing he was wearing. None of his limbs were at an awkward angle, but that couldn't be the only tell of any broken or sprained limbs. His clothes clung to skin, soaked all the way through. Judging from the lightness of the drizzle, and how long it had been doing so, Shinichi estimated the young man had been out in the rain for at least an hour, possibly more. He hadn't seen any towns or cities on the GPS, but then he hadn't really been looking for any so much as just looking for anything that popped up.

The young man looked old enough to drive, so it was possible he'd driven here. He hadn't seen a car on the way here, but that didn't mean there couldn't be one further up the road, just out of sight.

Still, none of any of that seemed to explain the fact that he was there, in the middle of nowhere.

With a fire in his chest.

It was entirely possible he was mildly tripping on that part.

Shinichi reached down and tentatively pressed his fingers to the side of the young man's throat. The detective hissed at the ice cold feel of the flesh beneath his fingers, and for a moment he could almost taste the bitterness of the fact that the young man was already dead. But even as the thought crossed his mind, he could feel it: the man's pulse, faint and even. The young man was alive, just unconscious.

Satisfied he hadn't lost this one, not yet, he checked him over for injuries. There where some scrapes and cuts, most likely from the same thorns that had gotten him, but aside from those, there weren't any signs of injuries. A quick check even eliminated a head injury to explain the youth's state of unconsciousness. Shinichi shook his head, not liking the fact that something could be wrong with the young man internally. There _shouldn't_ be, not from so little a drop, but he didn't know what the young man had been doing previous to the fall, and dare move him.

Standing, and keeping an eye on the young man, Shinichi back tracked the short distance out of the forest. He'd just opened his mouth to give a shout out for Kaito, when he spotted the magician already out of the car and headed his way. Shinichi snorted softly, not surprised in the least that Kaito had ignored him and had decided to follow him.

At least he hadn't been _right_ behind him this time.

"Call an ambulance, please. There's someone injured over there." Shinichi pointed in the direction he'd just come from. "It looks like he fell."

Kaito blinked at him, an eyebrow raising incredulously. Shinichi thought he heard him muttering about something about 'magnets', but he thankfully was already pulling out his cell phone. "You sure it's not another one of them?"

There was an emphasis to the last word, and it didn't take much for Shinichi to puzzle out the reason. Rolling his eyes at the now obvious meaning behind the magnet comment - him being a 'trouble magnet' - he shook his head. If the young man was a ghost, Shinichi wouldn't have been able to hear him scream. He'd never been able to hear them, only see them, and unless that had changed in the last twenty-four hours...

"He's breathing, but I can't figure out why he's unconscious." He left out the presence of the odd flame and the ice cold feel of the young man's skin out for the moment, not sure how to explain either of them just yet.

Not to mention, there was a very real possibility he was the only one who could see it.

Kaito nodded and started dialing. Leaving him to it, Shinichi headed back into the forest. The young man hadn't moved, nor did there appear to be any change in his state of health. Keeping an eye out for any changes, the detective gave into his curiosity and focused on the young man's chest.

With a whispered apology for the trespass to his personal space, Shinichi pressed his hand lightly over the area the flame could be seen. Part of him half expected to feel the burn of a fire, but all he could feel was the cold, damp clothing beneath his hands. He pondered if he was seeing a form of possession or something; that the young man was carrying around a second soul like he and Kaito had in just the previous few days.

In the past, whenever he'd seen a possession, he'd seen the other spirit like an after image overlaying the real person. This didn't look like one of those, admittedly, but then, Shinichi had only actually seen two possessions before and there were many types of spirits out there. Despite his gift-curse, he was hardly an expert on the subject.

He filed the thought away with the rest of the loose threads to this mystery. There were just too many pieces and none of them were happy to start painting him a proper picture yet. He needed more hard facts and he simply wasn't going to find them until either an ambulance arrived or the young man woke up.

As if in response to his thoughts, the flame flickered beneath his fingers, dimming and then brightening. Shinichi stared at it, baffled by the sudden change, right up until the young man's eyes snapped open. They stared, blank and glazed, at the sky above them, and Shinichi worried the young man might be more injured than he appeared after all.

All thoughts went flying out of his head, though, as the man's head jerked to the side and his eyes locked with Shinichi's.

Shinichi felt like he was staring into an empty abyss. A dark, black nothingness that threatened to consume him. Whoever this young man was, there was nothing human behind his eyes.

Just as suddenly as before, the man jerked a second time. That awful gaze vanished as his eyes screwed shut and he began to writher and convulse. His mouth fell open, and Shinichi instinctively clamped his hands over his ears as the young man let out a blood curdling scream.

Shinichi winced. He didn't want to remove his hands from his ears, but with the way the man was jerking around, it was likely he could injure himself on the surrounding rocks and branches, not to mention he could accidentally lash out and hurt Shinichi. The detective placed his hands over the young man's shoulders, throwing his weight onto them. It almost looked like the man was having a seizure, but he had never heard of anyone screaming during one. Although, when he thought about it, everyone had their different experiences and like any medical condition, the symptoms could be just as unique as the individual, so he couldn't rule it out as another symptom.

If it was indeed a seizure, after all.

Shinichi called out for Kaito. He wasn't sure if the magician could hear him over the man's screaming, but Shinichi knew he'd definitely hear the screaming, if nothing else, and come running from that if not from the cry for help. The young man gave a particularly sharp jerk to the side, nearly throwing Shinichi off him, and for all the fact that Shinichi was actually larger than him, he was turning out to be stronger than he looked. Shinichi wasn't sure he'd be able to hold him down much longer.

"Sir, if you can hear me, we've called help."

The screaming broke off, and for a moment, Shinichi thought that the episode might be over, but that hope was dashed as it turned out the man was simply taking a breath for another round. The detective briefly entertained the idea of muffling the man. It wouldn't have been orthodox and definitely something to be frowned upon, but it would definitely have made Shinichi and his headache feel better. Behind him, he heard the rustle of movement and the sound of his name. Half turning, he went to call Kaito closer, when he was distracted by a second flickering of the impossible flame.

The flame flickered; once, twice, like the beating of a heart. Nearly swallowed under the sound of the screaming, Shinichi thought he heard a new sound.

The chiming of a bell, bizarrely in time with the flickering of the flame. Once, twice; perfect synchronization.

Shinichi didn't have any time to ponder the meaning behind this new development or its possible connection to the flame, for the young man had seized, his whole body locking up. His scream, blessedly, also broke off, dying mid-breath. The detective watched him, thinking that this was it, for better or worse, when the man reached up and _shoved_ Shinichi away.

The, perhaps, funny thing about this shove was: this shove was not a normal shove. Normally a shove would have just knocked him back, or at worse, knocked him over. This shove was a bit stronger than that.

A whole lot stronger.

The shove lifted him right off the ground and sent him flying backwards through the air. Shinichi had the odd moment of vertigo, where his mind tried to process why he was suddenly air born and not still on the ground. Especially why he wasn't on the ground.

The random, stray thought that he might have been better off leaving this mystery alone crossed his mind, and he could already hear Kaito complaining about his inability to stay out of trouble. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd ignored common sense for a mystery after all.

Shinichi's flight came to a painful halt, by way of his back colliding with the unforgiving trunk of a nearby tree. The detective groaned, the air knocked from his lungs, and he barely felt himself sliding down and hitting the sodden ground. Darkness threatened his vision, and he thought he heard Kaito shouting his name, but he couldn't muster the energy to respond.

He was tired - so very, very tired. He'd actually managed to forget that little fact for a while, caught up in this shiny new mystery and the distraction from his boredom it promised. His body, however, had not forgotten, nor did it fail to remind him that he was already injured. Even as his mind rebelled, the darkness reached up and clawed at his consciousness until he had no chance to resist.

The last thought that crossed his mind was that Kaito was never going to forgive him for this.

-tbc


End file.
